TIFF 2006 Movie: Mainline

Rating: 7.5/10

ok i have to admit i’m weak – if i was in the position of the family in this movie, i think i’d be tempted to help the child commit suicide – i don’t think i would be able to watch the agony and misery they’re going through. This movie seemed to go on forever – not necessarily a bad thing though. The length was one of probably one of the reasons that the movie had such an impact. Every scene seemed to convey a different aspect of the turmoil – except perhaps the scene with the daugher (the addict), while sober, dancing around the house in her wedding dress playing an accordian which I didn’t really get…

i don’t know if i would say this is must see since it is a bit dark, but more so than trainspotting, this movie seemed to porstray the struggle and drives pushing an addict and inflicted on friends and family – trainspotting was almost ‘cool’ – this movie, was simply agonizing and morbid – the reduced colour (almost to black and white) adds to the feeling – a powerful tactic which added to the calibre of the movie. In all terms – acting, filming, writing, this movie was really well done – it’s made me want to see the movie Gilaneh by the same director (Rakhshan Bani-Etemad) from last year’s TIFF.

it was also interesting to hear the Director speak afterwards – she claims that the problem of drug use is not one that the Iranian government is ignoring and that they have clearly identified it as a problem. The problem, according to her, lies with the international community which does not acknowledge it. Personally, I think the fact that they border Afghanistan and are on the route to Europe for drugs, may have a bit to do with the problem as well…

here are some other reviews:
http://shadanplace.blogspot.com/2006/09/tiff-2006-13-mainline.html
http://www.torontoist.com/archives/2006/09/tiff_2006_daily_4.php
http://intellectia.blogspot.com/2006/09/tiff-day8.html

Did you watch this movie? what did you think?